Money for Nothing: The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich

by Thomas Levenson

James Windham, an official of the Salt Office (administering the taxes on salt), was no nabob. In May, he wrote to his mother, overcome with joy, “I grow rich so fast that I like stock jobbing of all things. Since the South Sea have declared what they give to the annuitants, Stock has risen vastly.”